-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- No issue has been hotter throughout the run-up to the election than jobs -- and both candidates took pains to tackle the issue during their first debate Wednesday at the University of Denver .

`` Over the last 30 months , we 've seen 5 million jobs in the private sector created , '' Democratic incumbent Barack Obama said .

The facts :

In 2009 , Obama 's first full year in office , people in states across the country were losing their jobs at a startling clip . In Ohio , the unemployment rate was 10.6 % .

But over the next few years , the nation saw slow increases in employment in the retail , education and health care sectors . Today , most states are gaining jobs . The key swing state of Ohio now has a 7.2 % unemployment rate .

The Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms that a lot of jobs have been created under Obama 's leadership -- 4.4 million by the bureau 's latest count . What Obama did not say , however , was that the nation shed 4.3 million jobs during the early days of his term , and that the net gain since he took the oath of office in January 2009 is just 125,000 jobs .

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Conclusion :

Many voters blame that initial weakness on the fractured economy Obama inherited from his Republican predecessor , former President George W. Bush . But in terms of sheer numbers , Obama 's assertion that he created 5 million jobs does not tell the whole story and is therefore false .

Also during the debate , GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said that 23 million people are out of work in the nation .

`` There is suffering in this country , '' said Romney . `` And we talk about evidence . Look at the evidence of the last four years . It 's absolutely extraordinary . We 've got 23 million people out of work . ''

The facts :

When the recession began , workers in every category lost jobs , but those in the middle and higher wage groups lost more of them .

And when the jobs started coming back , the lower-wage jobs came back stronger . That means that , while the nation has replaced lost jobs , many of those new jobs pay less than the old ones did .

To reach his 23 million figure , Romney counts everyone who is unemployed , has stopped looking for work or is underemployed -- working for less money than before or able to find only a part-time job .

Conclusion :

Romney is stretching his figures to the breaking point -- which makes his claim false .

What it all means :

If history is any guide , the employment figures could prove key in this race . In August , the U.S. unemployment rate was 8.1 % , according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics . No president has been re-elected with an unemployment rate above 8 % since Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s , during the Great Depression .

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President Barack Obama says he created 5 million jobs

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Mitt Romney says 23 million people are out of work in the nation

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Employment figures could prove key to this race